Torture and death threats appeal case denied

THE man accused of torturing a young woman while holding her captive in a Caloundra unit for 19 hours has lost his appeal.

Christopher John Adcock was one of three people charged over an incident in a unit on Moreton Parade in Caloundra on August 7, 2014.

After taping the woman's hands and legs, he punched her while yelling, taunting, making threats to kill her and her family, and threatening sexual assault.

The case against a woman charged over the incident included punches to the face, taser use, grabbing the woman by the throat, yelling and taunting and threats to kill.

The 22-year-old testified her female attacker dragged a syringe across her face while asking if she wanted to be awake or asleep when they killed her, and twisted and tightened a cord around her throat.

When the woman asked for some water, a bowl was put on the floor and she was made to drink it like a dog on her hands and knees.

When she was given food, Adcock asked her if she was enjoying her last meal.

The woman also testified all her attackers told her she was going to die, that they were going to put her in the boot or in an empty fridge.

She was beaten so badly it took three or four days before her eyes opened. Her eye socket was fractured.

Adcock's case at trial was that he was not responsible - that his two co-accused had committed the offences.

The jury did not believe him. At trial, he was convicted of torture, assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company, and deprivation of liberty.

Adcock argued in the Queensland Court of Appeal that the verdicts were not reasonable and a dead man's witness statement should not have been before the court in his trial.

But Justice Philip Morrison, in a judgment handed down on Tuesday, rejected the suggestion a jury could not conclude Adcock was the assailant.

He said the jury was entitled to conclude the victim was an honest witness, that her description of her male assailant "reasonably matched" Adcock and they could use the evidence of Bruce Woodford, who has since died, placing Adcock at the unit with the injured woman.

"If the jury concluded, as they could, that the complainant was detained, tortured and assaulted by a man with short dark hair, a goatee, and tattoos on his arms, they might well have wondered at the chances of there being two such men at the same place and time," he said.